Home Video Shows Tornado Approaching Monson
MONSON (CBS) - It is some of the most intense video recorded of last spring's devastating tornado that struck the town of Monson. And now a first look as the twister spins its way toward a home bringing back chilling memories for David Bradway.
It started as a "v" shape coming over the mountain, and he was bracing for it in his sunroom along with some family and friends. They had heard the reports of it touching down in Springfield, and knew the twister was on its way.
"It scared the living daylights out of us. We didn't know what to expect. Looks like it's coming straight at us," he said. It was taken by cellphone from his home, vivid enough to see the shape and power as the twister cuts a half mile to a mile swath.
WBZ-TV's Beth Germano reports
He knew time was running out. "I wanted to stay and watch it. I was the last one down to the basement," he said. It passed within two thousand feet of his home knocking down trees, but neighbor Rose Deland took a direct hit. Her house is still uninhabitable.
"I remember so vividly in my mind like it was coming right at us. I don't like watching it, don't like going back to my home, the home that used to be," she said.
Parts of the town remain a barren landscape nearly six months later. There are trailer homes on lots where homeowners still wait for construction. The tornado may have taken mere minutes to pass through, but no one forgets what it left behind making the video all the more powerful.
"You can see through the thing, debris swirling around. I never want to see one again," said Bradway. What it caught in its path has changed the landscape of the town, says Rose Deland. "Nothing is the same anymore. It's taken a lot away from all of us," she said.
